(1) Field of the Invention
The invention is a device that assists a healthcare provider to turn a bedridden patient from her left side to her right side and vice versa, to shift a patient from one part of the bed to another part of the bed or to keep a patient inclined. The device comprises of a turning pad with two inflatable chambers, fillable with a gas which is usually air. An inflatable positioning pad is placed between a patient and the turning pad. This inflatable positioning pad is used to aid with the turning of a bedridden patient and with the shifting of a bedridden patient from one part of the bed to another to another part of the bed. The inflation of the turning pad and the inflatable positioning pad is aided by air hoses and an air-supply system. Various methods are described that use the device to turn a bed ridden patient from her left side to her right side and vice versa.
(2) Description of the Related Art
As a woman (“patient”) goes through the labor process, the patient needs to be placed on her side and to be re-positioned to her other side throughout the labor process for medical and comfort reasons by labor and delivery health care providers (“labor nurses”).
A pregnant patient needs to be tilted or wedged onto her right or left side (“lateral position”) to displace the uterus to the side. To keep patients in a lateral position, labor nurses currently use foam wedge pillows. This positioning keeps the uterus from compressing the vena cava and causing a disruption in a patient's circulatory system. This disruption can cause a patient's blood pressure to drop and to decrease the amount of blood flow going to the uterus, the placenta and the baby. The result is either a repetitive or sustained deceleration in the fetal heart rate. To introduce a wedge under a patient, the labor nurse a) pulls on what is under the patient, moving the patient to the edge of the bed, b) rolls the patient in the opposite direction to a lateral position, and c) shoves the wedge under the patient. However, there are many deficiencies with this current turning method. The foam wedge often gets pushed off the bed or is completely flattened due to a patient's size. When a patient is large and/or heavy, the wedge is ineffective in keeping a patient in a lateral position.
Wedges are also utilized when patients give birth by Cesarean section. For instance, when a woman gives birth by Cesarean section, she lies on the surgical table with her right hip tilted up by a rolled up towel or soaker pad, which displaces the uterus to the side. This positioning keeps the uterus from compressing the vena cava and causing a disruption in a patient's circulatory system during the Cesarean section. This disruption can cause a patient's blood pressure to drop and to decrease the amount of blood flow going to the uterus, the placenta, and the baby. The result is either a repetitive or sustained deceleration in the fetal heart rate. Once the Cesarean section is complete and a patient gives birth, the labor nurse reaches under the sterile field to remove the wedge. When a patient is large and/or heavy, the wedge is ineffective for keeping the patient in a lateral position, and it is hard to place prior to the Cesarean section and to remove after the patient gives birth.
Turning is the process of placing a patient from one lateral position to the other lateral position. Shifting is the process of moving a patient from one part of a bed to another part of the bed. A patient is in right lateral position when the left side of her body is tilted up and the right side of her body leans against a surface. A patient is in left lateral position when the right side of her body is tilted up and the left side of her body leans against a surface. For example, a patient laying on a right lateral position is turned when she is moved to lie on a left lateral position. When a woman in labor is found to have a fetal heart rate tracing requiring fetal resuscitation, labor nurses are required to place a patient onto her right or left side utilizing a regular hospital sheet, soaker pad, what ever is under the patient, or by grabbing the patient and trying to pull her. Often the procedure is complicated because a patient is overweight, has an epidural, or both. To proceed with fetal resuscitation, a patient is quickly turned from one lateral position to the other lateral position and vice versa, several times until the fetal heart tones return to normal. Based on the medical condition, a patient may need to be turned five or six times in a 60 second period; hence, fast turning is required for efficacious medical treatment. Furthermore, in a normal labor process, laboring patients are encouraged to turn at least every 30 minutes to assist with the labor process; patients require nursing assistance if they have an epidural or are overweight.
Labor nurse injuries and equipment dislodgment occur frequently when utilizing current turning methods. Labor nurses are almost always at a patient's bedside alone. If an emergency arises, the labor nurse will usually be the first person changing a patient's position. Injury to labor nurses occur when they reposition patients; nurses can injure themselves by attending to an emergency event or by simply changing a patient's position in the course of normal labor. Epidural catheters can be dislodged from the epidural space due to the pulling on a patient's skin by the friction caused from quickly turning and shifting patients. If the epidural catheter is moved out of the correct position, the epidural will not work. An epidural catheter can also be dislodged or broken at the point where the catheter is connected to its base feeding adapter if there is a lack of a strain release mechanism. This kind of displacement can be caused with the applied amount of force and the awkward motion resulting from the current turning methods.
Prior art patient turning devices contemplate rotating a patient in place, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,781 (Bruno), U.S. Pat. No. 7,007,330 (Kuiper), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,900 (Shaw). These devices by themselves, have no means to shift a patient within the bed. Specifically, these devices do not contemplate shifting a patient from one side of the bed to another side of the bed while turning the patient from one side to the other. This shifting is desired to adjust the turning angle of the patient as they lay over the turning device, for better comfort of the patient, and for more efficacious and faster repositioning of the patient.
This shifting of a patient within a bed surface requires significant effort in the part of the labor nurses, primarily due to the friction caused between a patient and the supporting bed. Labor nurses traditionally use their arms, bed sheets, or soaker pads to move around patients. However, these means still create a significant amount of friction that requires significant effort in the part of the labor nurses and creates patient discomfort.
Prior art patient turning devices do not contemplate efficient and simple manners to rapidly deflate air chambers to accommodate medical emergencies that require rapid turning of a patient either as a single event or part of a cycle of turning. U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,781 (Bruno) uses solenoid valves within the air-supply housing to deflate air chambers. U.S. Pat. No. 7,007,330 (Kuiper) uses quick release valves and solenoid valves to deflate bladders. U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,900 (Shaw) does not teach any particular deflation methods. U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,552 (Hasty) describes devices that use air permeable materials or holes in low air flow configurations where the flow of air is gradual and the rotation of patients is gradual rather than rapid.
The use of turning devices necessitates the cleaning and repairing of some or all of the components of the turning devices. Components that are directly in contact with a patient get soiled and need to be removed to be laundered. A number of prior art patient turning devices do not contemplate components being able to be parted out for individual laundering and repair, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,781 (Bruno) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,240 (Fountain). Although U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,291 (Davis) does allow for the removal of bladder components through the use of a sleeve, it does not solve many of the prior problems with patient turning devices: it does not teach any particular deflation method, it does not provide for shifting of a patient and it does not help minimize the effort expended by nurses if a patient needs to be shifted. Furthermore, the turning device is bounded by the requirement that there be partially overlapping bladders, which limits the manner a patient can be turned and shifted around the bed. Although U.S. Pat. No. 7,007,330 (Kuiper) does allow for the removal of bladder components through the use of a sleeve, it does not provide for rapid shifting of a patient, it does not help minimize the effort expended by nurses if a patient needs to be shifted around a bed, does not allow for a means to adjust and reposition a patient and does not allow for a simple fast manner to deflate air chambers.